


Coming Out (Again)

by AustinB



Series: Bloodstream [6]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Battle of New York (Marvel), Established Relationship, Fitting all my Marvel OTPs in one fic, Fluff, M/M, Minor Character Death, Post-Battle of New York (Marvel), Publicity, Smut, Vampire Bucky Barnes, Vampire Steve Rogers, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-01
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-24 04:16:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6141205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AustinB/pseuds/AustinB
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve is chosen for a special assignment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Fury is as close to a meltdown as Bucky has ever seen him. He’s standing eerily still behind his desk, while Steve and Bucky sit in front of it like schoolchildren receiving a scolding.

Except they might be sentenced to death.

Steve’s got righteous fury flashing in his eyes; Bucky hasn’t had a chance to speak to him privately since they’d gotten caught and he’s not sure that possibility has crossed his mind yet.

“Of all the stupid— jeopardizing our very— do you realize what could’ve—?” When he pauses for breath, Maria finds her opening. She’s standing to the right and slightly behind Fury, her cool demeanor doing nothing to assuage Bucky’s panic.

“Prolonged interaction with unprofessional humans increases the risk of exposure exponentially. You could’ve brought down our entire family, all to save a paltry few human lives.”

“Paltry?” Steve shakes off Bucky’s weak attempt at holding him in his chair. “Try telling that to the family of the girl we saved. She was six years old! She could grow up to— to cure cancer! To become president! All lives matter and if you want to punish me, go ahead, but this was my idea so you can leave Bucky out of it, and I’m not going to stop. I’ll be careful, sure. You can regulate it if you want. But I’m _not_. Going to stop.”

Fury and Maria exchange an unnervingly long look.

“We didn’t think so,” Maria says, then jumps into a seemingly random thread. “Our human liaison in the government thinks the liberal shift in the social and administrative authority in the country makes for a good opportunity for introduction of our kind to the general human population in a controlled, coordinated fashion. The larger families on the West coast and in London agree.”

It's a lot of big words, and it takes a few moments for them to sink through the fog of panic and anger. Steve's shoulders drop away from his ears minutely.

“You want to…come out of the coffin?” Steve glances sidelong at Bucky to see if he's smiling at the reference, which he definitely isn't, so Steve shakes his head. “What does this have to do with us?”

Fury looks heavenward. “Help me,” he mutters, then, to Steve, “You have the profession, the face and the character to put humans at ease with the thought of the blood-sucking undead living amongst them.”

Maria shoots Fury a disapproving look. “We’d like you to be the face of vampire-kind. Read the press releases, do interviews on our behalf to introduce us and explain our benign existence to the general population.”

Steve looks gobsmacked— he looks _honored_.

“There’s gotta be— out of all of us in the world— somebody better than _me_ to do this.”

Bucky would laugh if he weren’t so furious. Steve— the best guy in the whole world— sells himself short every time. Bucky’s tried making him understand, in every way he knows how, but he’s got a thick skull, his Steve. And as much as Bucky hates Fury for putting this on him, he knows there’s nobody better for the job. Nobody better _period_.

“With a genuine war hero by your side, you hit all sorts of demographics,” Fury finishes, finally sitting himself down. Steve shoots him a sideways smile at that, like _that’s_ what makes this a possibility for him.

“You don’t think vampire _and_ gay will be a little too much?”

“I think sleeping with men will slip right under the radar when they hear the words ‘blood sucking,'” Maria says.

She’s probably kidding, but the level of fuckery in the upper echelons isn’t something Bucky’s going to underestimate, especially with what’s at stake.

“Okay, but you’re not actually going to _say_ the words ‘blood sucking’ right? Like, you gotta phrase that differently. Right?”

Because if Steve is actually gonna— and it sure looks like it— take the heat for the lot of them— goddamn parasites, fucking _vampires_ — then Bucky’s sure as shit gonna make sure nothing gets to him, even if he’s gotta put himself in front of a bullet. Knowing Steve, it’s within the realm of possibility.

Maria smiles at him gently, which is probably a first for her and Bucky might be flattered, if a little unnerved, to be receiving it except for her dry tone when she says, “No, Barnes. We’re not actually going to say the words ‘blood sucking.’”


	2. Chapter 2

Steve is rubbernecking all over the place, not listening to Bucky’s best tour-guide impression, though he knows Bucky likes showing him new things. But the cherry blossoms are in full swing, and the pink petals float in the air like snow drifting in New York City. It’s gorgeous. The mountains, the water, the colors. Steve wants to live here.

He’s already met with one West Coast family, and the rest of the larger families across Europe gave Fury their permission without requiring a meeting.

But Akami Himura might be a little tougher. Bucky’s done some work for her before, security and protection, and Steve’s ridiculously glad that Fury let him come on this trip. From what Bucky’s told him, she’s scary as hell.

Bucky takes them to a tall building in Tokyo, all shining glass and metal. It reminds him of the Tower at home. Except when they step off the elevator on Akami’s floor, it’s decorated in feudal Japanese style, embroidered murals in navy and red hang on the walls, bamboo mats on the floor and painted screens in the corners.

Their escort waves them into the living room, where six vampires are gathered. They’re just what Steve was expecting, solemn and judgmental, except the one white guy standing in the back, wearing jeans and a leather jacket, looking bored.

Akami Himura looks to be about 40 years old, but Bucky knows she’s at least 600. She’s wearing a black traditional kimono with a white sash and her dark shiny hair is folded atop her head.

She greets them in Japanese and Bucky replies in kind, bowing. Steve follows his lead.

“So this is the one?” she says, eyeing Steve critically.

“Steve Rogers, ma’am, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

The white guy in the back scoffs, but Akami smiles. She invites them to sit and have some tea, and the ceremony of it all is entrancing. The inner circle of her family moves about her with deference, and Steve is given the honor of the seat across from her.

She asks about him, where his life began, how he feels about this task. They talk for close to two hours, and Steve realizes no one else has spoken a word but for the two of them. When she dismisses them, they bow low and the white guy escorts them out. 

“Barnes,” he says coolly.

“Logan,” Bucky replies in kind.

“This’s gonna blow up in your face, you know that right?” he says, fishing a cigar out of his jacket pocket as they make their way outside. He sounds American, or maybe Canadian, and is clearly less than impressed with the two of them. 

“Maybe,” Bucky says.

“Maybe not,” Steve finishes.

* * *

Coming out of the coffin, as Steve insists upon calling it, goes remarkably well at first. After getting Akami’s express approval, Fury let Bucky beef up the security at the Tower for the fallout that’s sure to follow. He installs a truly ridiculous amount of cameras, heat sensors and even bulletproof glass.

He heads the security at the press conference, too. Bucky had wanted to have a bird’s eye view, he’d been a sniper in the war anyway, but Steve insists on having him up on the dais with him, next to Fury and Maria, standing just behind and to his right.

They gather the press on the steps of a courthouse, under the guise of an important SHIELD Enterprises announcement. The humans mingling below them chatter about a merger or bankruptcy.

Steve looks sharp and confident, in a navy suit and red tie. Only Bucky can see the nerves in the twitch of his eyebrow and the lines around his mouth. He casts a look back to Bucky before stepping up to the microphone.

Some of the reporters in the crowd leave the moment the word vampire is mentioned, scoffing and rolling their eyes. The rest stay for the carefully worded speech Maria made Steve memorize, listening intently, if a little confused.

Once Steve’s finished, they're silent for a beat, then all start shouting questions at once.

Bucky watches the crowd, the buildings, the rooftops, though there’s no possible reason for anyone to wish Steve harm quite so soon. That’ll come later. He listens to Steve answer increasingly personal questions with aplomb and just the right touch of endearing and completely sincere awkwardness.

“Ah, no, clearly the sun doesn’t burn us.”

“The virus is transmitted through the blood.”

“Our family is based in New York, but we have contact with other families around the world.”

He’s charming and casual, that bright grin of his puts them at ease when they might otherwise be panicking. He's good at this. If the lot of them aren’t in love with him by the end of his next sentence, they’re the monsters.

* * *

The whole world is thrown into a tizzy. The backlash begins almost immediately. Mostly in the form of hate mail to the Tower, which gets screened by a human temp and shredded. The love letters are almost just as bad.

Steve becomes an international celebrity overnight. His background is no secret, and suddenly the general population is privy to the details of his life. He’s made wildly uncomfortable by the growing throng of fans who seem to always be loitering by the Tower.

The very same cultist nut jobs whose websites Steve had studied when he first met Bucky are now shouting his name and waving their arms to get his attention. They want autographs. They want pictures. They want him to bite them.

Since Maria, Fury and Bucky were all in the spotlight when the announcement was made, they get a slice of attention too. Bucky more than the others, because of his good looks. And something about the way he’d been looking at Steve has spawned all sorts of speculation. Most of it’s true.

Bucky’s more irritated than uncomfortable with all the attention, and apparently likes to channel his frustration by having a lot of vigorous sex. Which seems to work well for both of them.

* * *

Bucky’s pacing in front of the T.V. as the trashy talk show plays. Steve’s wondering if he can make a move for the remote clutched in his hands when he’s distracted by his own rage.

“—just going to let them run around free? I have kids! These bloodsuckers have too much power; they can’t be trusted. They could kill any of us at any time—”

“You know who else could do that, motherfucker?” Bucky stops pacing to shout at the T.V., “The police. I guarantee you vampires haven’t killed a fraction of the people your government has!” He throws the remote across the room, where it shatters against the wall, leaving a dent and scattering plaster dust on the floor. He stalks a few more laps around the floor before growling and launching himself at Steve.

Steve lets himself be tackled into the couch cushions and kissed breathless. He lets Bucky suck him off, then fuck him right there, driving in hard and fast. Bucky kisses Steve hard when he comes, hot and wet and desperate, and Steve comes a second time, into Bucky’s fist.

Bucky melts against Steve’s chest, pressing his face just under Steve’s ear to catch his breath. Steve combs his fingers through Bucky’s hair, smoothing his hands down the back of his neck and across his shoulders.

“Thank you,” Bucky mumbles against his skin.

“For what?” Bucky knows Steve likes taking it hard just as much as Bucky likes giving it; there’s no need to thank him for it.

“For staying calm.” Bucky pulls out and lifts up onto his elbows to look down into Steve’s face. He huffs a little, “You’re my anchor. You’re a fucking rock.”

“Yeah? Am I the wind beneath your wings too?”

“You know what, asshole, yeah, you are. I’m trying to say something nice to you.”

“I love you too, baby.”

“Ugh, whatever.” Bucky rolls off the couch and pulls his pants back up.

Steve’s not sure how to tell him that he’s his sun and moon—hell, all the stars too. So he just laughs and catches the pillow Bucky throws at him.

Steve takes a shower and meets Bucky in the bedroom. He’s lying in the middle of the bed with the blankets pulled up over his nose, staring at the ceiling. Steve crawls in under the covers from the foot of the bed, feeling Bucky’s stomach shake from muffled laughter as he covers him with his body.

When he nuzzles his nose into Bucky’s neck, he admits in a whisper, “I almost threw the T.V. out the window.”

Bucky laughs, surprised and loose. “I love you so much.”


	3. Chapter 3

Steve is called in to a meeting with Uncle Sam’s appointed Vampire Liaison, a tall, lithe woman with a surprisingly commanding presence that makes Steve want to tuck in his shirt.

Bucky has tagged along, because if he can just get inside the room, Fury can’t really kick him out in front of a human.

“Ms. Potts, this is Steve Rogers and his partner, James Barnes, who apparently goes everywhere with him,” Fury says for introductions.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she extends her hand to both he and Bucky without so much as a flinch. She’s wearing a grey dress and her red-blonde hair is pulled back into a level ponytail. 

“I wanted to inform you,” she hands everyone in the room a manila folder, and Steve wonders how she knew to bring an extra for Bucky, “of the legislation that’s being fast-tracked through Congress regarding vampires.”

“Regulations?” Bucky says scornfully, flipping through the folder.

“Nothing that will infringe upon your rights, of course, but certain procedures become necessary when an amount of danger is—“

“Danger?” Bucky repeats, with a hint of disbelief.

“Bucky,” Steve warns quietly. Ms. Potts looks genuinely apologetic.

“With regulations in place, even superficial ones like these, the general public will feel safe and won’t call for anything more dramatic.”

“So why am I here?” Steve asks. It’s not like he has any power. He’s just the face.

“It would do a great deal toward vampire-human relations to have you sign off on them.”

“But I have no real say in anything.”

“Neither does the Queen, and yet.”

Fury, uncharacteristically, snorts. Steve doesn't appreciate it.

“I’m going to have to look these over before I endorse anything.”

“Of course. The vote is next Tuesday.”

He and Bucky read their respective folders filled with 20 pages of legalese at the kitchen counter. Bucky scowls the whole time. “You think it’s good?”

Steve flips a page. It’s about 50% words he doesn’t understand, but it seems sensible. And despite knowing her for less than a day, he trusts Ms. Potts. But if Bucky wants to fight it, Steve will back him.

“Yeah. You?”

He looks up at Bucky, who sighs, “It sucks, but. If you’re in, I’m in.”

* * *

Tony inserts himself in the 6” between Bucky and the arm of the couch, holding an obnoxiously large bowl of popcorn, so he can throw half of it at those who talk during the movie and still have enough to eat.

Bucky watches him skeptically as he shimmies in, jostling him against Steve, who’s arguing across the room with Clint about what movie they should put on.

When Tony is settled, Bucky stares at the side of his face for some kind of explanation, but he's just watching the screen, where Tash is scrolling through Netflix, and shoves a handful of popcorn in his mouth.

During the opening scene of Pride and Prejudice—Natasha and Steve ganged up on Clint and unsurprisingly won—Tony says casually as he chews, “So, what do you think about that Potts lady?”

“I’m not going to vet her for you!” Bucky says incredulously, as if Tony had even strung together any of those words.

Tony sputters, “What? I didn’t— I don’t want you to! I was just asking—“

Bucky sighs. “Fine. I’ll do it. But if you want my opinion—“

“Jesus. I asked for it, didn’t I?”

“—she’s far too good for you.”

“Well, yeah,” Tony grumbles. “I coulda told you that.”

* * *

Their lack of cellular understanding of the Vampire Virus drives the humans crazy, so they ask Steve (who then asks Fury) very politely if they can take a sample of his blood.

The scientist they send to the Tower is a quiet man with unruly brown hair and glasses whose calming presence quiets even Tony, who’d parked himself in Steve’s living room that morning in anticipation of this event. Steve thinks he may have hoped Ms. Potts would be there. He’s disappointed that she isn't for only a moment, before falling madly in love with Dr. Banner. Their energetic scientific chatter turns toward the theoretical and contains more words Steve’s never heard before than those he actually understands. It makes the whole process take ten times as long, with Tony distracting the Dr. at every turn, until Bucky forcibly removes him, still talking the whole way to the door and shouting, “Call me!” as Bucky pushes him out.

Once the blood is analyzed, Dr. Banner returns several times for more samples and for other baseline tests. It makes Steve slightly nostalgic; the medicalness of it all. He doesn’t miss being the one on the receiving end of the poking and prodding, but the lab coat, the gloves, it reminds Steve of the hospital.

He hasn’t been able to work since coming out; the media circus put the hospital at more of a disadvantage than anyone would admit, until the board asked him to go on temporary leave. It's caused a serious lack of Sharon and Sam in his life, but they text when they can. Plus he goes in to give blood every three or four days when one of them is working.

The humans caught on right away to the fact that the Vampire Virus has healing properties. It was one of Steve’s demands, when asked to be the poster boy for their race, that their blood be donated freely.

There’s a bit of a supply and demand problem there. Steve can only give so much before he passes out, and while the rest of the families donate as well, there’s just not enough.

The hospitals set up clinics in remote areas for the distribution of VB, and while the logistics are being worked out, the black market catches on. Where there’s a demand, there will be those looking to cash in on it. Six humans tried to jump Maria one night, since she, Steve, Bucky and Fury are the only ones the general public is _sure_ are vampires, but she incapacitated them without breaking a sweat. Bucky's still in a tizzy about it.

But Bruce has been able to synthesize the virus components into an injection, though at a slightly lower healing rate, and without the side-effect of re-animation in the event of death. The government and the Families sign off on mass production of it; it'll hit the medical community next fall. Steve lobbies hard with Ms. Potts for a say in the name of it, but as she so eloquently put it before, the Queen has no real power.

So they call it Vamprisol, which ok, isn’t _terrible_ , but is still not _nearly_ as cool as True Blood.


	4. Chapter 4

There’s a little bit of a hubbub in the Tower. Erik has decided he wants to make another, since Rumlow was such a resounding failure. She’s young, younger than any of them, only 22, and the deliberations last nine hours before the council gives their approval.

Marie is sharp and scathing, far too bitter for someone her age, which is probably what Erik relates to. But she has a tender heart, too. Bucky hasn’t seen it, but Steve had coffee with her a few times while she waited for her answer.

“I don’t know why I told you that,” she says to her coffee with a smile. As a native New Yorker whose continental travel consisted of trips to Jersey, Steve can admit he finds her Southern twang unendingly charming. “We met five minutes ago and you know as much about me as those two.”

Erik and Charles are standing angled together by the window, waiting. Steve gets the impression this is a joint effort. Charles is looking over his shoulder at them, smiling softly. He knew her for years, back when she was first a runaway, and she didn’t know he was a vampire until recently.

Having someone new around is strange for Steve. He’s the newest one of them by several decades, and seeing Marie go through all the things he did puts him right back there. The overwhelming newness of the entire world. Bright, shiny.

“What’s the weirdest thing about it?” she asks. Steve considers. Drinking blood, sensitivity to sunlight, super strength, near-immortality.

“Family movie night on Sundays.”

Her laugh is big and full, and it makes Erik smile over his shoulder at them.

* * *

They have a full house. Bucky expressed _mild_ concern over security due to the Anti-Vampire nutjobs and the Family’s (mostly Steve’s) positively rabid and rapidly growing fanbase, and Fury had sent for _Logan_ from Japan. Then he sent _Bucky_ to pick him up from the goddamn airport.

Bucky brings him up to the 75th, where Marie is subjecting Steve to Project Runway and he is secretly loving it. Bucky looks grim, but Logan’s smirking.

“Communal floor,” Bucky says throwing his hand toward the room then turning back toward the elevator. He’s giving him a _tour_ , too. He must’ve done something to piss Fury off.

“Rogers,” Logan says, nodding. Steve nods back at him. Logan wanders into the room and sticks his head in the fridge, then rifles through the cupboards while Bucky holds the elevator and sighs loudly.

“Who’s the toddler?” he asks on his way back past the couches.

“I’m a grown woman,” Marie says flatly.

“Sure thing, darlin’,” he says, which makes Marie tighten her grip on her mug of tea.

* * *

After coming to terms with vampires, Bucky wouldn’t have thought humans would be so surprised by aliens. But they’re woefully unprepared for the invasion, continuing to throw bullets and missiles even when it’s clear the armor is too strong.

Nat and Clint came down to Bucky and Steve’s floor when it started, and even Steve, still _so_ human in so many ways, is a little flabbergasted. Nat’s looking more stoic by the minute, and Bucky slips away to the back bedroom unnoticed. He comes back with a black duffel slung over his shoulder.

“Come on,” he says to the room, striding through to the elevator. Nat and Clint follow immediately, Steve trailing behind.

The rest of the Family is gathered on 75, watching on the big screen. Tony is pacing, chewing his thumbnail, but the rest are still as stone. Bucky takes his duffel to the table in the kitchen while Steve sinks down on the couch next to Charles to watch. Fury comes up a minute later. All eyes dart to him, but he comes straight to Bucky.

“Ready?”

“Will be.”

Fury turns to the room. “Volunteers only.”

“I’ll go,” Charles says.

“And me,” Erik says.

Tony, Nat, Clint, Logan and a half dozen others pipe up.

“I can’t ask you to fight,” Fury says to Logan.

“Buddy, no one’s ever had to ask me to fight.”

“I’m going, too,” Steve says. Bucky’s head jerks up from where he’s strapping on his thigh holster.

“No.”

“This is my decision,” Steve snaps. Bucky and Steve both look to Fury simultaneously.

“Don’t worry, Rogers, I won’t try to stop you from following your boy. Lord knows I wouldn’t win that fight.” He looks to Bucky and shrugs, “Not much I can do. You know him.”

“Yeah,” Bucky mutters, “I do.”

The room is bustling. Erik is ordering Marie to stay put and Jessica and Raven are talking about what to wear, since the rest of them don’t have the benefit of full body armor.

He clips his jacket and when he looks up, Steve is standing there looking heartbroken, eyes darting over the guns and knives like Bucky hasn’t been cleaning and strapping them to his person for the last ten minutes.

“What is this?” he asks quietly.

He hasn’t worn this gear in ten years, since the last time Pierce deployed him. It feels heavier than before. Bucky doesn’t—can’t—answer, just tightens his straps and slips a pistol into his boot.

Fury splits them into two teams and they make a plan of action. As the rest of them are readying to go, Fury snags Steve by the arm.

“I have something for you first.”

It’s a tactical suit. Navy blue, with white detailing, the same hard canvas as Bucky’s terrifying black jacket, tailored for his measurements. He’s still their face, even now, in battle. Gotta make a good impression.

“Did you know this would happen?” Steve asks.

“The aliens? No. But there’s always something. You try to plan for every eventuality. Now come on. We live on this planet too. Let’s go save it.”

Down on the street, it's absolute chaos. Steve and Bucky huddle with their team on the sidewalk for a moment, taking it in.

“Nat, take Steve, stick to the streets. Clint, rooftop, keep your eyes on them.”

Clint twangs his bowstring. “As if you could get me to do anything else.”

Then Bucky turns to Steve, in his slightly ridiculous onesie, and eyes him hungrily, regretfully, from his head to his toes.

“Steve, for God’s sake, don’t do anything stupid.”

“I’ll be fine,” he says, eyes darting around, ears tuned in to screams and crunching metal. There’s adrenaline humming in his blood already, familiar from back alley fights not too long ago. Bucky grabs his arm.

“Steve. If anything happens to you.” There’s not time for this. He crushes his jaw. “I won’t survive it.”

Steve looks at him finally. He grabs Bucky by the collar of his jacket and hauls him in for a brief kiss, then shoves him back just as Bucky’s hands try to pull him closer by his belt.

“Yes, you will. But we won’t have to find out. Now let me go break in this suit, I’m starting to chafe.”

* * *

It takes most of the next two days, but together, the humans and vampires drive off the invasion. But not without a cost.

They lose Charles. As the battle is winding down, Erik shuts down completely, kneeling over him, screaming.

Marie’s going to have a hard time with it, but right now, Steve is too relieved to see Bucky moving toward him through plumes of smoke, fire and piles of rubble to think too far past getting his hands on him.

Once they see that Nat is stable and the rest of them are accounted for, they make their way silently back to the Tower. Steve is tired and dirty and in need of comfort. The humans can handle the cleanup.

Once they’re on their floor, Bucky moves Steve into the bathroom, where Steve lets him remove his new suit, now dirty and bloody; broken in, broken in.

Bucky shucks his own things and turns the shower on. He moves Steve under the stream, washes the grime out of his hair, off his skin, then lets Steve do the same to him. Steve holds him tightly, knowing how close he came today to never getting the privilege again.

When they’re scrubbed clean, dry and tucked into their familiar blankets, Bucky kisses him.

Watching Steve fight was like going back in time. For a while he was that scrappy guy Bucky fell in love with, using his fists and anything he could get his hands on as a weapon. They weren’t terribly well-equipped, except for Clint because he worked with Nat, and the gun Bucky’d given Steve ran out of bullets in the first ten seconds. At one point he used a car door as a shield, and then a frisbee. Bucky watched through his scope, his heart in his throat, his whole body screaming to be down there with him. Scared in a way he’d never been before. Proud in a way he’d never been before.

The world has already wanted a part of him since the ‘they’ collective saw his face. It’s going to be a nightmare now. But at this moment, he belongs wholly to Bucky.

Bucky kisses him, fingertips ghosting over precious skin; worshipful. Bucky kisses his collarbones, along his sternum, lips and tongue skimming over the hollow next to his hipbones. Steve is breathing hard, hands fisting in the sheets when Bucky kisses the length of his cock, then sucks him slowly, so slowly that Steve begs, "Please, Bucky, _please._ " 

Bucky never could deny him anything, so he finishes him off hard and fast, and when he's swallowed it all down, lays his head for a moment on Steve's thigh and closes his eyes, content right here, just to have him close.


	5. Chapter 5

The Anti-Vampire activists are temporarily silenced as the rest of the world lauds them as heroes.

There’s a shaky cell phone video that nearly breaks YouTube of Natasha vaulting off Steve to snag one of the alien cruisers and taking it up to the mothership. She jumps off just before it crashes, her with her unmistakable red hair falling two hundred feet onto a rooftop. The resulting explosion caused a chain reaction that sent the ship, the size of Rhode Island, crashing into bits from Harlem to Brooklyn.

Just as crushing as the video of Natasha is impressive are the pictures of Erik cradling Charles’ body in his arms, pure anguish all over his face. That does almost as much to endear the race to the humans as Natasha’s literal saving of all their asses.

The vampires who joined the fight receive honorary Combat Readiness Medals from the President in a ceremony two weeks later that’s televised worldwide and attended by the Who’s Who of Washington. Natasha, fully recovered, receives the Medal of Honor. Steve receives a Distinguished Service Cross. The fact that none of them belong to any branch of the military is ignored. The President gives a rousing speech on global togetherness, gratitude and pride in humanity.

Steve places his Cross on the mantle on their floor of the Tower, emotions volleying between tickled pink and honored to tears. Bucky comes up beside him and sets another velvet box next to Steve’s.

“What’s this?” he asks. Steve hadn’t seen Bucky once during the fight, despite being on the same team. Steve and Nat fought back to back most of the time, defended by Clint on the rooftops. Though occasionally an alien would fall dead before it could reach him, a bullet through its neck rather than an arrow. 

Steve opens the velvet box to find a Silver Star. Bucky received a Medal along with the rest of the Family at the ceremony, but the Silver Star is the third highest honor of all, behind only Nat and Steve’s honors. “Why didn’t they give this to you with the rest of us?“

“I asked them not to.”

Steve tilts his head. When Bucky has trouble finding the words he’s looking for, Steve steps closer, a hand resting lightly on Bucky's hip.

“I should be behind you,” Bucky finally says. “What Nat did, ending it, nearly killing herself; she saved millions. She deserved that medal. You saved thousands, gave us and the humans someone to believe in. All I did was protect you.”

All he did. _All_ he did.

It's not a conscious decision to kiss him, to guide him toward a horizontal surface and strip him of his clothes; it's more like his body speaking words his mouth can't, putting into action his deepest, his only true desire.

* * *

Logan decides to stay.

Apparently fighting with the Family in the Battle of New York softened Bucky’s dislike of him, and vice versa, and spending more than 10 minutes together allows them to realize they’re actually soul mates.

“No, you fucker, that was _me_ ,” Bucky says, laughing at Logan when Steve finds them on 75. He plops down with his book on the couch next to Tony, who is getting destroyed by Clint at some new first person shooter game. He tunes out their conversation and ends up watching Tony get his ass handed to him instead of finishing his book.

Bucky drops a kiss onto Steve’s head as he passes by the couch, and he and Logan take the elevator to somewhere Steve wasn’t invited to. He wouldn’t mind it really, he and Bucky are past that kind of thing, but Marie has started mentioning Logan casually in conversation.

“Logan said” this or that, or “the other day Logan and I were…”

Steve disapproves harder than he’s ever disapproved of anything before in either of his lives.

Tony has given up the game in dramatic fashion and Clint is browsing Steam for an ‘easier game for the noob.’

“Mom has a new boyfriend," Tony says once the elevator doors close on Logan and Bucky's laughter, "She doesn’t have time for us anymore."

“He’s kind of a prick,” Steve says, then feels bad about it, because even if Logan is rough around the edges, he did stay and fight with them, and he’s trying to make a home here.

Tony gasps, “Our all-American boy _does_ have feelings other than passion for truth and justice.”

“You’re kind of a prick too.”

“Hey, when’s your next appointment with Bruce, I want to steal him from you too.”

* * *

The next time Steve sees Logan in passing, his shirt is torn and he’s got blood drying on the collar. The man doesn’t spare him a glance, instead focusing on clearing a path through the lobby with the force of his glare alone. 

“What happened to Howlett?” Steve asks Bucky, where he’s in their kitchen with a glass of water.

“Do you care?” he shoots back mildly. Steve pulls off his scrubs on his way to the bedroom and steps into his sweatpants, knowing Bucky will still be able to hear him, even across the apartment.

“Actually I do. He’s Family now.”

Bucky sighs. “Erik had some words with him about Marie, and it came to blows.”

“Well, I’m glad someone said something about it,” Steve says, joining Bucky in the kitchen. 

Bucky looks at him. “You don’t think much of him.”

“I just think a lot of Marie. And he’s way too old for her. She’s a child.”

“She is actually a grown woman.”

“You know what I mean. It’s not the same in this life.”

“He’d never hurt her.”

“Not purposefully maybe, but he’s…rough. He’s dangerous.”

A strange look crosses Bucky’s face. “So am I.”

“That’s different.”

“You think because I smiled I was any less dangerous to you? At least she’s Family already. She can defend herself against any one of us.” Water spills out of his glass onto the floor when he gestures sharply, but Bucky doesn’t notice. “It’s a goddamn miracle you survived me. And you didn’t even,” Bucky laughs bitterly. “She doesn’t need you to protect her. That always was your problem, lookin’ out for everybody else and not yourself.”

Steve’s not quite sure what this is about, but he knocks the water glass out of Bucky’s hand and presses him against the refrigerator to kiss him hard. Shards crunch under his feet when Steve walks him backward toward the couch to press him into the cushions with his body. Bucky cries out when Steve bites over his jugular as he grinds down on him, and sucks hard on the torn skin. He pushes Bucky’s jeans down along with his sweatpants, and their precome slicks the way as he jerks them both off together. Bucky bites Steve’s lip when he comes, his fingers digging into Steve’s hips hard.

Steve rests their foreheads together as their breaths slow.

“Ok,” Steve says, and Bucky understands.

* * *

The next Sunday, Steve is sitting on the couch next to Bucky. Marie and Logan sit side by side on the couch across from them, not quite touching, but leaning close to talk. When Logan gets up for another beer, he takes Marie’s empty glass and refills it with tea, then sits back next to her, a little closer than before. She smiles at him and he smirks, but in the blue glow of the T.V. in the dark room, Steve thinks he can see a little bit of Bucky in the hard lines of the man’s face.

Maybe that’s why he and Bucky hated each other at first, and why they’re close now. Why Bucky defended him with such fervor. Because underneath the hardness, he can see the softness too, the same kind of softness Steve always sees when he looks at Bucky now, the softness that Bucky _lets_ him see.

Steve shakes his head a little, thinking about his Cross on the mantle, next to Bucky's Star, about seeing his face in a Time magazine profile, about Natasha free-falling twenty stories and now sitting curled up between him and Clint. 

When Steve was human, he had Sam and Sharon, and a handful of his mom's friends to send him Christmas cards, and he was grateful for them, of course he was. But he has a _family_ now. All these people who have his back, who share this amazing, crazy, beautiful life with him. These people that Bucky brought to him. It's been almost five years of this life, an anniversary he and Bucky celebrate every year by staying in, and Steve is beginning to realize this swelling thankfulness will _always_ be there, like a safety net, like skydiving, a warm dry summer, a good hard rain, loud family dinners and quiet close conversations. 

Steve bites the inside of his lip and takes a slow deep breath, then throws one leg over Bucky's and takes his hand, lacing their fingers together. Bucky smiles at him softly and squeezes his hand, like he knows somehow just what he was thinking. Steve isn't surprised by it anymore. 

"Hey," Steve says over his shoulder in Tony's direction, because they're 20 minutes into Episode 5 and Tony is so engrossed he hasn't even thrown any popcorn yet, "I like the prequels, let's watch those next."

He catches Tony's lobbed kernel in his mouth, crunching on it with a grin.

Tony squints at him. "You bastard."


End file.
